We are following and implementing all advice and guidelines provided by the UK Government, Public Health England (PHE), CQC, UKHCA, National Health Service (NHS) and Health and Safety Executive (HSE).  We are monitoring the situation closely and are in constant communication with our team providing updates and advice on policies and procedures as new information becomes available.

There have recently been a low number of suspected cases of COVID-19 within our Company, with the Carers affected being placed in isolation, and we are vigilantly monitoring the situation to ensure none of our Carers or Staff have a cough or temperature or display any other symptoms of the virus. We would be grateful in return that should you display any of the symptoms of the virus that you immediately inform us so that appropriate action can be taken.

It is also important to highlight the resource constraints that we face (along with many businesses) because of the NHS track and trace App “pinging” so many of our staff. We are naturally following the COVID-19 guidance and placing these staff into isolation however it is impacting quite severely on the resources we have available to provide the full service of care. Please bear with us during this difficult period, hopefully things will get better soon.

In the guidance PHE recommends that the best way to reduce any risk of infection is good hygiene and avoiding direct or close contact (within 2 metres) with any potentially infected person. Our care and support staff always maintain high standards of hygiene and follow robust infection control guidelines but given that we care for some of the most vulnerable people in our communities, during this outbreak we expect them to be extra vigilant about handwashing, coughs and sneezes, and keeping clients’ homes clean. The wellbeing of our clients and staff is our highest priority.

Regarding the clients who are reliant on the service that we provide, we are constantly reviewing our rostering system and are looking potentially to prioritise home visits for those in the most vulnerable positions. This is a system that we have in place for eventualities like bad weather emergencies (snow, floods, storms etc) whereby we operate a red, amber, green system of priorities which is reviewed by our management team on the basis of most urgent need. Where service users have family, who can support them in the interim, where the calls are non-essential visits (such as a weekly shopping call or social visits for instance) then we will review these visits in the light of the available resource.

We would like to thank you for your continued support and wish you all good health during this very difficult time.

The Management team Everycare Mid Sussex.